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Making Indian cities inclusive means making them more walkable

Archita Suryanarayanan

05 Jun 2019

Walking, cycling and using public transport are the main ways of getting around Indian cities. But as India's cities expand and car ownership increases, pedestrians are being marginalised – and their safety is being put at risk.

In dimly lit parts of Bengaluru, India, placing a foot wrong on an evening stroll can lead to a nasty fall into a pothole. Walkability – the ability of pedestrians to move around an area easily, safely, and smoothly – remains terrible, even close to sensitive areas like schools or hospitals. For people with mobility issues and wheelchair users, the situation is even worse.

Roads in Indian cities are getting less safe

In the last few decades, India’s urban population has grown rapidly. Without suitable policies and infrastructure to manage growth, this has resulted in urban sprawl and traffic congestion, made worse by inadequate quality and safety of public transport and non-motorised transport infrastructure. Mobility in urban India is in transition – with people travelling longer distances and more frequently, but using non-motorised and public transport less.

According to data in Urban India 2015: Evidence, a publication by the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS), India had the highest number of road deaths (around 130,000) among 182 countries in 2010. Collisions were nearly double those in China and around four times those in the United States. On average, 56 pedestrians died every day, according to data released by the government in 2017.

Urban India 2015: Evidence also highlights that, unsurprisingly, crashes are more frequent in larger, crowded cities. In 2013, just six cities – Mumbai, Chennai, Indore, Delhi, Bengaluru and Kolkata – contributed to a quarter of all urban road accidents.

Poor planning for pedestrians especially hurts those on low incomes

Pedestrians and bicyclists are often the most vulnerable. According to a paper titled ‘Urban Transport in India – Challenges and Recommendations’, published by IIHS in 2015, pedestrians account for more than 40% of road traffic fatalities in New Delhi, Bengaluru and Kolkata. Bengaluru fares the worst, with three pedestrians killed on roads every two days, and more than 10,000 hospitalised annually.

The urban poor are often ‘captive users’ of non-motorised transport. They walk or cycle even when it’s inconvenient, because they can’t afford any other modes of transport. As a result, unsafe roads overwhelmingly affect socially and economically disadvantaged residents.

Marginalised communities such as poor people and migrants are also unduly affected by collisions, as they’re often in more vulnerable positions as pedestrians or users of non-motorised transport. They also potentially lack good access to medical and trauma care.

Making cities safer for pedestrians

Indian cities must address these issues and improve pedestrian and bicycle infrastructure. In most Indian cities, barely 30% of streets have pedestrian pathways. Even where pedestrian paths exist, they’re often taken over for parking or sometimes even driving of motorised vehicles, especially ‘two-wheelers’ ubiquitous in many Indian cities.

Road space is unequally distributed because streets in India aren’t being designed to accommodate all the functions of a street, a fact that some new policies are now trying to change.

Despite this, pedestrians or cyclists are sometimes made to bear the burden of traffic regulation. Pedestrians are regularly urged to use footbridges or skywalks (elevated walkways) in the absence of pedestrian crossings. But many cases have shown that this is a less than effective solution. Wheelchair users, for one, are completely ignored in these designs.

In Mumbai, more than 30 skywalks have been built since 2008. But these have come under fire for being very expensive to build and difficult to use, given the lack of escalators or lifts and limited considerations of safety.

As Indian mobility continues to transform, this is a prime time to determine its future course. Do we want cities that cater largely to affluent and polluting motorists, or cities that are welcoming to all types of road users?

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